


dance me to the end of love

by PandaPaladin



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Identity Reveal, One Shot, SuperCorp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 08:29:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20079205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandaPaladin/pseuds/PandaPaladin
Summary: “See?” Kara flashed her a big, genuine smile. “Dancing with me wasn't that bad.”(Or Kara asks Lena to dance so she can admit that she’s Supergirl.)





	dance me to the end of love

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first supercorp fic (and hopefully one of many lmao)!! You can consider this a cope-fic after seeing the season 5 trailer dfslahdghadfs. Sometimes you just wanna imagine a world where Lena finds out about Kara and not wanna punch her, if you know what I mean.

Between her company, CatCo, and personal relationships, Lena could barely entertain herself with the idea of rest. At every turn, at every tick of the clock, there was a new press conference, an interview, suffering projects— she could blink once and suddenly her workload would double. 

She never complained about it though. It was what she signed up for the moment she inherited the Luthor name, a kind of miracle and curse wrapped into a six-letter word. A miracle, she mused, for meeting Kara Danvers. Obviously, the curse came in the form of news outlets and media scrutinizing her underneath their magnifiers at every mistake and risk she takes. Lena was tactical, smart, and always, _ always _four steps ahead of her competitors. Five, she thought, if she wasn’t so tired and droopy-eyed at this very moment.

She didn’t flinch at the cold tickle at the nape of her neck, dismissing it for nothing but the breeze, never taking it into consideration that it may be her new, flying friend.

“Long night, Miss Luthor?” called the authoritative voice beside her. 

Lena didn’t flinch or look up from her desk, already so accustomed to Supergirl’s constant checks on her. For a while, Lena thought that Supergirl’s visits were motivated by distrust, wariness of the meaning in the L of L-Corp and the Luthor in Lena. But then they became acquaintances, then trusted friends, and then, on a level, confidants. 

“You don’t have to visit me so often, Supergirl,” Lena said levely, pursing her lips as she looked down at her work. “Your city may be in peril at this very moment.”

Supergirl laughed, beit a bit nervously. Lena quirked her lips in amusement, but still kept her head down and focused on something entirely else. “I have super-hearing. Maybe you’ve heard of it. You know, getting to hear anything across the globe?” she teased. 

When Lena didn’t respond, she felt the Girl of Steel come closer to her chair. A hand rested on the desk, inches away from the swift strokes of her own hand making marks and precise signatures on a thick stack of paper. “Lena.”

When she didn’t stop, or show any reaction at all, Supergirl said it again, louder but still with the soft, delicate undertones. “_ Lena _.”

Then she finally looked up, exhaling through her nose rather uneasily. She stared back into bold, blue eyes. She wondered, again for the nth time since Supergirl emerged, if this woman kept those same eyes, that same voice, for when she hid among the civilians. She wondered how on Earth someone hasn’t recognized her, not when she speaks so dutifully that it silences an entire building to listen to her, not when those eyes stare back like she’s thinking of a way to break you. 

“Supergirl,” Lena responded back. 

“Have you been at your desk all night like this?” Supergirl said to her, exasperation meddling on her tongue. 

The arm on her desk retracts back to fold across Supergirl’s chest right after Lena replied with, “You know the answer.” It wasn’t a snarky retort of any kind, just a matter-of-fact way of saying _ you’ve been here every night to spend ten minutes reprimanding me about my habits. _

Lena expected a frown to play on her Superfriend’s face, but instead it burst into a maniacal grin. “Perfect!” Supergirl said breathlessly, and suddenly Lena finds herself turning her chair ninety degrees to face her with a quizzical look. “I mean— good, yeah. You aren’t, um—” She clears her throat, hand doing odd motions, and starts over— “You aren’t busy?”

Lena, amused at the way Supergirl is stammering and asking her, a businesswoman starting on a fresh stack of paper at two in the morning, if she was busy, broke into a fit of laughter. “You’re the funnier Kryptonian between you and your cousin, aren’t you, Supergirl?” she said teasingly.

Supergirl gave her a tight-lipped smile, glancing left and right as she stammered out another answer. “Well— yes, but also no. But—! I know you’re working on some business thingy-ma-jigs right now but—” 

“Thingy-ma-jigs?”

“Shut up, I’m trying to save you—”

“From what?” Now Lena was just having too much fun. 

“You!” Supergirl groaned. Her arms still folded over her chest, she paced around Lena in such a way that Lena wondered if she was actually _ nervous _ about something. That sobered her up, knowing full well that if Supergirl wanted something from her, it wasn’t for games. “Look, Lena, you’ve been swamped with work for what, a couple weeks?”

“My whole life?” Lena rebutted. 

Supergirl stopped right in front of her desk. She sighed, then pivoted. Hands on her hips, shoulders squared, this was truly Supergirl’s style. “You need a break,” she said simply. 

“And I will. Once I finish my work—”

“Lena.” Her name was too soft on Supergirl’s voice. A shiver went down Lena’s arms. “I’ve made you promise the past few nights to take it easy on yourself.”

“And I have,” Lena said. She did, taking more breaks in between her work and consuming more liquid as Mommy Supergirl had advised her to do so. But then a thought went through her head, and before Supergirl could speak more, she asked, “Why do you care so much?”

“Because you’re my friend.” Simple, direct. The same exact answer to every time Lena brought it up. 

“No, I mean…” Lena pursed her lips again, clasping her hands on her desk as she leaned forward. “Why does a Super, who has an entire city, if not _ planet, _to protect, wastes ten minutes of her every day to check up on the woman whose family has done nothing but wreak havoc on the people she loves?” Her voice was cold, though she didn’t really mean it to be. She was too curious not to ask Supergirl of her own motives.

Supergirl was looking at her. They were searching for something, but Lena was too distracted to notice what she was looking for. She was studying Supergirl’s blue eyes, her mind screaming at her that she knows those eyes, _ she knows she knows. _But she can’t realize why.

“Dance with me.”

The question jolted Lena out of her frustrated thoughts. And she blinked, wondering for a brief moment if she misheard the words, or drew the wrong conclusions to the way Supergirl’s mouth moved. 

“Dance with me,” Supergirl repeated. A smile graced her features. 

_ Why? When? I don’t have any music, or a stereo, or— _Lena’s words raced through her head, all of them fighting to be the one she spoke to Supergirl. Instead, she laughed feebly. “Dance? Why?” she finally got out. 

“You’re stressed.” She said it so simply and with a shrug that it sounded like Supergirl was telling her, “Duh.”

“Nothing that I can’t handle,” Lena replied. It was the truth. 

Unfortunately for her, Supergirl’s hand was already outstretched in front of her, across the desk between them. All Lena had to do was take it. She only sat there, dumbfounded. “Supergirl, I—”

“Come on? Please?” Supergirl pleaded. Her eyes gleamed in such a way that swayed Lena, so full of benevolence. “One song. One song, and I’ll put you down, I’ll let you get back to work. It’s just that you’ve been looking so stressed and I—” She gulped, visibly. “I just wanna dance with you.” 

Lena always makes sure that people’s intentions with her were nothing but pure to what they say. She inspects the way their faces tick, the way they move, their possible influences. Taking Supergirl’s hand was a one second decision, void of the perusing Lena usually takes. Her heart hiccups at the way this superhero collapses her shoulders and smiles wide, relieved at Lena’s unspoken yes. She moves smoothly around her desk, feeling eyes watching her every move.

Swiftly, Lena is pressed against Supergirl’s chest, hand on her hip and another one clasped with her hand. Lena’s other hand was resting shyly on Supergirl’s bicep. “Taking the lead without asking first, Supergirl?” Lena laughed.

Supergirl smiled wider, a grin that only matches with that of a child at an amusement park. “I only figured it was fair when you’re nearly dozing off at my feet.”

Lena snorted, but subconsciously straightened her back. Yes, she was tired, but having Supergirl’s face so close to her own was all kinds of riveting. She was certain that Supergirl could hear the way her heart thrummed attentively to her chest. She would neither confirm nor deny to anyone if she had a crush on the heroine, but how could she _ not _? Even just a little? Her heart was big enough to fit the entire city. The only one who had that kind of heart was Kara. 

Lena gulped, briefly glancing away from Supergirl’s stare. “We have no music,” she said. 

Supergirl laughed. When it subsided, her eyes carried a kind of worry as it continued to look kindly at Lena. “Are you afraid of heights?” she asked lowly. 

“No,” was Lena’s automatic response. Then curiously, she followed up with, “Why?” It couldn’t be held against her for asking questions, after all.

They were swaying, millimeter by millimeter apart, but swaying nonetheless. “Well…” Supergirl shrugged. “We can dance out on your balcony.”

Lena’s body went cold. “I can’t fly,” she said bewilderedly. Surely, Supergirl knows that?

“I know!” the heroine said quickly. The hand on her hip squeezed just a bit. “But I was thinking, maybe… I can hold you. Just like we are now. But I’ll fly us out into the open.”

There were so many _ questions _running through Lena’s head. She blurted each one out in an attempt to foil Supergirl’s plans. “People will see us.”

“I’ll fly us up far enough. And the west side of your building? Bare of paps, I promise.”

Lena found it endearing that Supergirl would childishly call the paparazzi, _ paps. _But she shook this off, and fired back with, “Why do we need to?”

“Flying up there feels amazing,” Supergirl admitted. “I’ve only ever carried you bridal-style in the air and if I held you like this, I figured, well, it would feel like you were flying with me.” Every word she spoke became quieter and quieter until the end. She smiled sheepishly at Lena when Lena stared back at her, astonished. 

“You want me to dance with you…”

“Yes?”

“In the air… so I can know what it’s like to fly?”

“Yeah.” Supergirl cleared her throat. It looked like she wanted to say more, but her voice failed her, and she opted to keep smiling at Lena instead. “Of course,” she said again, more softly. 

Lena inhaled, closing her eyes. She wanted to laugh breathlessly in her Supergirl’s face. She wanted to make a face, say a smartass comment. She wanted to do something to make sense of this entire scene in front of her. She exhaled, long and heavily, and she could feel Supergirl walking backwards slowly, nudging her own body to comply. Supergirl’s hand on her hip slithered until it took up the entirety of Lena’s waist.

“And if you’re so worried,” Supergirl murmured, dipping her head to level it with Lena’s eyes, “I won’t drop you. I would _ never. _”

“I know,” Lena told her, surprised at herself at how genuine she sounded. She had complete, infallible trust in Supergirl. She just wanted to know _ why this _, so desperately. “I just have to ask, again. Why are we doing this?”

“I told you.”

“The _ real _reason.” 

Supergirl definitely noticed the way Lena had said it. Snippy and calculating, the same way she demanded respect and answers from those who talked over her. 

“Well, I…” She cleared her throat. “I was hoping for a chance to get you alone, Lena.”

Lena wasn’t dumb. Everyone knows that, lest of all Supergirl. God, she beat her own _ brother _at chess when they were children! The fact that Supergirl thinks she could lie to her face like this irritated her from right under her skin. Of course the Girl of Wonder would come swooping in, at this hour, just to get her alone for nothing else but for a favor. 

Then Lena looked at her, a glare unintentionally playing across her face, and it suddenly dissipated, wiped clean after seeing the look Supergirl gave her. Sheepish and kind, jolting Lena into another wave of familiarity. 

“Are you sure you won’t drop me?” she said dumbly. 

And Supergirl laughed, her feet already an inch off the ground. She took Lena with her, and Lena was shocked at how she couldn’t feel how tight Supergirl was holding onto her, considering that Supergirl’s arm slung around her waist was the _ only _point of contact she had. Her shock must’ve shone brightly on her, because Supergirl glanced back at her eyes, her other hand squeezing Lena’s. “I’ve got you,” she said boldly. 

They flew slowly out onto the balcony, Supergirl’s back facing the open air. Lena was leaning onto her, her breath coming shorter and shorter as they flew, she thought, to their death. “Scared of heights now?” Supergirl breathed, her short puffs of air tickling Lena’s jaw. Lena couldn’t help but rest her head on the Kryptonian’s chest, willing her eyes shut and her heart to stop pounding wildly in her ears. 

“No, but being dangled in the air certainly doesn’t help with fear, Supergirl,” Lena said as steadily as she could. 

Supergirl grinned back at her. “I’m not dangling you. We’re dancing,” she replied smartly.

They were in the air. Again, even though Lena could certainly feel that strong arm wrapped around her waist, it didn’t feel like she was being painfully held up in the sky. She opened her eyes, blinking at the city below them that became smaller with every passing breath. Supergirl tightened her grip on Lena’s hand. “You know your hand should be on my back, right?” Lena said, doing her best to break the sudden silence between them. 

Supergirl only blinked, brow furrowed. 

“When you slow dance, the lead takes one hand clasped around the lady’s—” Lena glanced at their joined hands “—and the other hand is pressed lightly on the small of her back.” Evidently, Supergirl had hers around Lena’s waist. Not that she was necessarily supposed to complain. 

The Kryptonian breathed out a laugh. They were so far up in the air, Lena had to will herself to keep her head level in order to stay sane at the altitude. “I wouldn’t be able to hold you up here if I did,” she answered. 

Lena tilted her head. Her hand resting on Supergirl’s bicep burned hotly, mostly to her realization that this entire situation was so, so intimate. She distracted herself with the instruction to herself to not look down_ . _“So you got the girl alone,” she drawled out. “What do you need?”

Supergirl didn’t respond, her lips a thin line. She flew them further out, Lena’s heart stuttering at the feeling of being completely helpless. There was no ground, no wall to touch. She felt her chest constrict further, but then Supergirl called out her name, and everything around her widened again. “You’re sure you don’t want me to slow down or anything?” Supergirl asked, her brow still a tight knit of worry.

“Yes, I’m sure,” she said, her words nearly a huff. “Just answer me.”

“And I did. I want you to feel what it’s like to fly.” There was that easy-going smile again.

  
Lena narrowed her eyes, looking past Supergirl’s ear to realize that they were so high up, they were flying among the clouds. And when she ignored the gentle pressure of Supergirl’s arm slung around her, she could visualize herself flying. It was scary to be so far from her city, but it was also quite… 

“It’s freeing,” Lena murmured.

“It is,” Supergirl agreed. Lena could barely tell if Supergirl was holding them steady in the air, or letting them drift with the wind. But she knows for certain that as odd dancing while flying (Fly-dancing? Dance-flying?) was, Supergirl was making it work. They swayed from side to side, a rhythm that steadied Lena’s mind away from the unsafe height. When their eyes met, they held steady there for a long, drawn moment. Supergirl was the first to look away, a shadow passing through her eyes as she thought of something that wasn’t quite as calming as their given situation. 

“I have to tell you something,” Supergirl said quietly.

Lena was shocked at how fast the anger came onto her, apparent by the way she dug her nails into Supergirl’s bicep and hand. “Oh, yeah, I know,” she said, a biting undertone to her words, “everyone only comes and spend some time with me to ease me onto their many favors, right, Supergirl?”

To say Supergirl looked shocked was an understatement. 

(And for that brief moment, Lena feels guilty. But she brought her walls back up and glared.)

“Fav— favor? I wasn’t gonna ask for any favors, I just—” Supergirl stammered. 

“What is it this time? What, you need a new bomb? The DEO needs new equipment?”

“No!” Supergirl said it so quickly that it became lost to the wind. “Lena…”

The anger was gone. Lena sighed through her nose unsteadily, resting her forehead against the emblem of the House of El. “I’m sorry. Go ahead.”

Supergirl stayed quiet. Because she wanted Lena to cool down first or she was getting her own thoughts collected, Lena could only guess. “Remember when you asked me if I liked secrets? And you asked me for my real name?” Supergirl said, the words a rumble that Lena could feel on her chest. Lena didn’t look up nor respond. 

“I wanted to tell you, I really did. You’re important to me. And I promised myself I would tell you the _ first _chance I got but then…” Supergirl laughed mirthlessly. “I kept chickening out.”

At this, Lena peeled herself away from Supergirl’s chest to look into her eyes. Eyes that pooled blue, a mixture of apology and hesitation. They were so bright and alluring that Lena wondered if everyone on Krypton had such beautiful eyes. They also held no animosity against Lena. Just a sincere, inviting look that told Lena that yes, she can tell this girl everything and not be afraid of the repercussions. 

“Everyone has their secrets,” Lena settled on. “We aren’t exactly best friends. It’s okay to keep your own identity.” 

“But you wanna know.”

“I think everyone does, Supergirl.”

Supergirl smiled at her. She twirled themselves around in the air, successfully making Lena’s stomach drop the same way a rollercoaster may. “What if I told you that I care about you even if I wasn’t wearing my family’s emblem?” Supergirl asked her. Her smile was still there, though a bit more uncertain. “Would you believe me?”

“You retain your memories when you take off that metaphorical mask, don’t you? You don’t just suddenly forget about who you come into contact with as Supergirl?” Lena said jokingly. 

“Not like that.” Supergirl laughed with her. “I mean, as my other identity— my _ real _identity, I care about you maybe even more as Supergirl.”

Lena quirked an eyebrow at her. “I don’t know if I follow.”

Supergirl licked her lips, glancing away from Lena. Lena kept her eyes focused on the girl in front of her, watching the way Supergirl shied away from her gaze. It looked so goddamn familiar. 

“Don’t I look familiar to you, Lena? Especially this close?” Supergirl said, echoing her thoughts.

“Yes. Very much so,” Lena admitted softly. Her eyes searched Supergirl’s face for an answer. Every time she came close to one, her mind shut it out. She denied those possibilities, locking them away at the very back of her brain to never be found. Denial was strong when that was all you could do.

Supergirl removed her hand that joined Lena’s, much to Lena’s surprising disappointment. She reached behind her, pulled out a pair of glasses, and held it out in front of Lena’s face. Lena was too startled to ask where it had come from.

Lena blinked for two things. One, the glasses. Ones that she’s seen being pushed further up the nose as it slipped down a certain reporter’s face. It paired with a blonde’s nervous laugh, her bright blue eyes, ones that has never ever judged Lena’s last name. Lena’s heartbeat hiccuped in her chest. 

Two, she was straddling Supergirl’s waist. Her weight was completely shifted onto K— Supergirl’s body. Supergirl was leaning backwards until it looked like she was lying down on air, supporting Lena’s body without so much as a sweat or strain evident on her face. That hand that wrapped smoothly around Lena’s waist was nearly gone, now only resting on Lena’s hip. Was it to keep her from falling? Because she liked the contact? Lena’s heartbeat picked up even more, no longer caring if the Kryptonian could hear it.

“Put them on me,” Supergirl said, her tone between a question and a direction.

“Why can’t you?” Lena asked her, her words so strained from her swirling thoughts. 

“I would, but I think you should,” Supergirl insisted. The hand on Lena’s hip felt so heavy now. “Please?”

There were those eyes again. Puppy-dog eyes, big and mournful. The same way her best friend looked at her when she refused to order a third serving of potstickers. 

Her hands moved by themselves, carefully unfolding those glasses and swiping away those golden locks to secure it behind her ears. Supergirl scrunched up her nose, pushing her glasses up in order to get them in a comfier position. Once Supergirl adjusted to the way it perched on her nose, she gazed back into Lena’s wobbly eyes.

“Kara?” she said, her voice quivering as badly as her hands bunched up on Kara— _ Kara’s _chest.

“Hey.” Kara tried her hand in a reassuring smile. 

“Kara…” she said again, stupidly.

“Who knew all it took was for me to put on some glasses for you to recognize me?” Kara said with a bark of laughter. Even to Lena’s pounding ears, her laugh sounded strained.

Now both hands were on Lena’s hips. “Lena?” Kara tried again.

It wasn’t like it was a surprise, per se. From the first time they met, Lena had a feeling that she was Supergirl. Every time her mind went there, thinking that her best friend could possibly be anything more than Supergirl’s friend, she shut it down. It was thrown into the depths of the weird, impulsive thoughts that crossed Lena’s mind. After all, Kara being Supergirl? It was in the same category as Lena leading the same path as Lex, working with her mother, _ being _like her family. 

If this was true, what else could be dug up and brought to life?

“Why haven’t you told me?” Lena said quietly.

“You told me I can keep my own secrets,” Kara told her. But realizing that it was not the best time to tease or answer that way, she said again, “I was going to. I swear I was. I tried so many times to make it work, but…”

“Is that why you’ve been coming to visit me everyday for the past month?”

“Partly.” Kara was chewing on her bottom lip, eyes still glued to the way Lena kept looking back at her like _ that. _Like she didn’t know what to make of her. Lena really didn’t. “I wanted to spend time with you. But yeah. Yeah, I also wanted to tell you.”

Lena kept silent.

  
“I thought that… letting you draw that conclusion yourself was easier than if I told you,” Kara said. Her lips were in another tight smile. “I really, _ really _wanted to tell you, I mean it. And I’m so sorry I haven’t, I—”

“It’s fine,” Lena said quickly. She surprised herself by meaning it. There was no anger present in her body, just bitterness and the familiar pang of frustration. But frustration at whom and what? Supergirl, her _ best friend, _had no obligation to tell her, no matter how much Lena wanted it. But God, it stung harder than she could imagine. Her jaw tightened and she willed herself to not grind her teeth into powder. “It’s fine, Kara.”

Kara kept looking at her, eyes passing over her every feature. “You’re my best friend,” she said softly. Her words surprised Lena more than anything else. Kara cleared her throat. “You’re my best friend,” she reaffirmed, her face a halo of soft light, “and I’m so sorry—”

“You can stop apologizing to me. If you told everyone in National City that’s been nice to you that you were Supergirl, how do you think that would go?” Lena chuckled dryly. 

“You’re my best friend,” Kara said again. She was starting to sound like a fax machine.

“And you,” Lena told her fiercely, a hand reaching up to Kara’s cheek, “are Earth’s greatest miracle.” _ My greatest miracle, _a voice tickled at the back of her head. Her thumb smoothed over Kara’s tense cheek, and Kara only watched her, her breaths coming in steady and short. She was used to intimate moments with Kara Danvers, just never as Kara parading in her family’s emblem. 

It was so different. Different-good, she decided.

  
Her bitterness towards the Girl of Steel faded away the longer she looked into Kara’s genuine eyes. 

“You don’t hate me?” Kara croaked out. Lena moved her hand away from Kara’s cheek, wringing them in front of her. Her hands rested on Kara’s sternum. If she pressed down hard enough, she was sure that she could feel Kara’s steady heartbeat.

“Not as much as I hate Lex,” she said with a quirk of her eyebrow.

“That’s a low bar, Lena,” Kara laughed.

“How about all the times you burst through my balcony and demanding I give you my full attention, was that not a low bar either?”

“You make it sound like I’m a villain.” Kara pouted at her, and Lena couldn’t help but laugh.

Her shoulders relaxed and her heart played back a steady rhythm. She didn’t think of falling five hundred feet from the air, or the fact that she was straddling her best friend, or that, well, Kara Danvers was Supergirl. Everything just felt okay. She was okay.

It’ll take her time to wrap all of _ this _in her head, to connect every odd thing with Kara to Supergirl, but Lena knew she could do it. Kara was always going to be her best friend, Supergirl or not. Her being the champion of Earth just meant that Lena had to deal with it. 

Quickly, the few times she remembered Supergirl being in trouble popped into her head. All the times she saw Kara kneeling or barely breathing due to kryptonite or an other-worldly danger, not knowing that it was _ Kara _. It made her heart feel sick. So she pushed away those thoughts, told herself to deal with the influx of emotions later, and regarded her superhero friend with a gracious smile.

“Where’s my dance, Supergirl?” 

Kara tilted her head at her, her face quizzical. “What?”

“You took me out here to dance and show me what it’s like to fly. We did, if not barely.” Lena ended her words with a chuckle. “Obviously, it was just a ruse to tell me that you were Supergirl but—”

“A ruse?” Kara laughed.

“—there is no way in hell. That you would take me back to my apartment without leaving a good impression on me.” Lena smiled innocently back at her.

Kara was smiling at her, giggling at the way Lena was speaking. She undoubtedly knew what Lena was trying to challenge her to. So she leaned in, and whispered, “What if I told you I just wanted you here so you can touch the stars with me?” 

Two can play at that game. “I’m touching the brightest star in the galaxy right now. How can the other constellations in the sky dazzle me?”

Kara’s face flushed a light pink, and she cleared her throat to chuckle with Lena. Lena was brilliantly aware of her palms pressed against Kara’s chest to steady herself. They felt like they were on fire, and Lena couldn’t tell if it came from Kara’s body temperature or her own body denying her a smooth comeback. 

“I wasn’t actually planning this,” Kara admitted with a shy smile. Her smile plastered on that beautiful face worked like magic to bring a small, identical one onto Lena’s. Lena kept quiet, silently urging her to go on. “I was um…” Lena could tell she was itching to bring her glasses further up her nose. It suddenly shocked her to see how much more different Kara looked with her hair down and glasses on. An in-between for the two identities that defined her. She looked stunning.

“I was just planning to check up on you again,” Kara settled on, shrugging her shoulders. She glanced down below them, then back to Lena’s eyes. “But then I blurted out I wanted to dance with you because I just— wanted to, you know? And when you were dancing with me, I realized that if I took you up here, showed you who I was…”

“If I was angry at you for showing me who you are, I wouldn’t have a choice but to hold onto you and wait for you to put me down. It’s the perfect plan.”

Kara gaped at her. “No!” she said insultingly, but Lena’s laugh made her laugh and the sentimentality she was trying to present was broken.

“But, yeah, um, I wanted you to feel how calming it is to be up here. Maybe, maybe it could help with how you took my news,” she said, a guilty smile displayed on her lips. It dropped a little when Lena shivered, remembering how cold it was when Kara mentioned their current height. “Sorry, it’s cold up here. Let me wrap it up and I’ll put you back down?”

“Of course,” Lena replied, grimacing at the feeling of her stomach rolling over when Kara dipped down, just slightly. 

Kara noticed, giving her an encouraging smile as she wrapped an arm around Lena’s waist. “Stop straddling me for now,” Kara said.

Lena looked at her with a playful look, determined to stop glancing back down at the small city below them. Kara, realizing that she said _ for now _, blushed darker, but said nothing.

  
Lena peeled herself off her friend to press her body against the Girl of Steel. Kara swooped her up in a bridal-carry, flashing Lena a confident grin before flying them back to L-Corp. All the while, Lena wrapped her arms around Kara’s neck, gluing her jaw shut to take her mind off the churning in her stomach.

She was put down a moment later, and she released the air from her lungs. Lena crossed her arms in front of her, took a step back from Kara, and cleared her throat. “You never really gave me your answer about that dance, Kara,” she said. She didn’t mention how good it felt to say Kara’s name, the weight from her shoulders lifted after knowing and seeing for herself that her mind was not playing tricks. 

Kara gave her another shy smile, mirroring Lena’s crossed arms. But then she cleared her own throat, looked down at the ground, and put her hands on her hips in a familiar stance. She was still wearing her glasses.

“Have I ever told you that glasses look good on you, Supergirl?” Lena blurted out, her words an icy calm. She meant it. 

“I’ll keep that in mind, Miss Luthor,” Kara replied cheekily. “And, I mean, if it’s alright with you. I think I owe you a real dance this time?”

“Real?” Lena asked her curiously.

“One that didn’t involve scaring the crap out of you by taking you up in the air,” Kara clarified.

Lena laughed, once more surprising herself for the tenth time. She came closer to Kara and enveloped herself with her friend as the follow of their dance. The hand on her hip was heavy, yet she never said she didn’t like it. And Kara’s hand in hers— Lena expected calluses from writing as Kara Danvers, or calluses from the punches she was forced to deliver as Supergirl. They were so gentle and warm.

They were still out on the balcony, but it wasn’t like Lena cared. She knew that if someone really was watching them, if someone was snapping pictures for a new headline for CatCo or otherwise, Kara could hear them. She always felt safe with Kara. This was no exception.

So she laid her head on Kara’s chest, closing her eyes and humming softly under her breath. “Did I tire you out already?” Kara laughed, the rumble deep in her chest. It was so soothing. Lena couldn’t will her eyes to open even if she tried. 

Kara kept swaying them gently from side to side. They weren’t dancing, not really, and they both knew that. Both of them didn’t really care. “_ I’ll _take that as a yes,” Kara huffed. Her chin rested gently over Lena’s head. Lena could already imagine Kara closing her eyes, letting her guard down for the first time in so long.

“I had so much work today. Do you remember that man from the insurance company I was telling you about this morning? His version of giving me hell was making me sort through all his paperwork for L-Corp to cover,” Lena told her. “And then you come in as Supergirl, you swoop in here to force me to dance and then you told me you were Kara, and now my mind is going to seven different places at once, and…”

  
“I was _ asking _you to dance, not force you,” Kara corrected. Lena snorted. A beat passed, and Kara said, more quietly, more intimately, “You don’t have to think about it. I know you think that it’s your job to process everything all at once, but don’t let me be the reason you can’t sleep. I’ll tell you anything you want, right after you rest.”

“I don’t wanna go to bed,” Lena whispered, her voice childish and soft. She thought that Kara couldn’t hear her before foolishly realizing that the woman had super-hearing. 

“Leave the work for tomorrow. Okay?” Kara said. Lena didn’t answer. It felt like a whole minute passed before Kara took one step away from her and a finger tugged Lena’s chin upwards. “Okay?” Her voice was soft. 

“Alright,” Lena said, just as quietly. 

“See?” Kara flashed her a big, genuine smile. “Dancing with me wasn’t that bad.”

Lena chuckled, releasing the hand that gripped Kara’s. “Go home, Supergirl,” she insisted.

“I’ll do one more sweep around the city and I’ll go,” Kara promised her. When Lena only lifted an eyebrow, Kara said, “It’ll literally take me ten seconds.”

“Fine,” Lena replied. Boldly, she stepped up and kissed Kara’s cheek, one hand on the other cheek. “And then you get some rest too. I can’t have my favorite reporter sleeping on the job, now can I?” 

Kara grinned. Hands on her hips, she was a sight for sore eyes. She was about to leave, evident by her footing, ready to take off, before Lena called out her name.

She swiftly took the glasses off Kara’s face and handed them back, folded, to her best friend. “Be safe.”

“I just got a kiss for good luck, so,” Kara told her warmly. She tapped the side of her face where Lena had kissed her. Lena smiled and crossed her arms, waiting again for the breeze and the boom that indicated that the Kryptonian left. 

“But hey. Um. I’ll come over again tomorrow? Another chance where we can dance properly?” Lena could finally place the tone underneath some of Kara’s words tonight, including this one. She actually was one hundred percent nervous.

That stunned Lena for a good two seconds. Then she nodded, and asked, “With music?”

“One that you can find that’s good for slow dancing, Miss Luthor,” Kara said. Her shoulders slumped slightly, that brilliant smile a work of art that Lena wanted to capture and live through for a lifetime. 

“Are you giving me homework now, Supergirl?”

Kara kept grinning. “Consider it payment for all the times I’ve saved you.” Lena wouldn’t have caught the sudden nervousness to Kara’s voice if she hadn’t thought of her recent epiphany. “Consider it a date?” It even sounded like a question.

“Consider it done.”

If it was possible, Kara’s smile only became bigger. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow, Lena.”

Kara disappeared into the air, leaving nothing but a blur of a shadow in her wake.

  
Lena looked up into the sky, her heart a thousand times lighter than it had been for years. She stared up at the stars twinkling back at her, the bustling city that looked so minuscule from up there. She couldn’t help but think that Kara’s eyes looked just as brilliant as the stars above. She was her world, after all.

“Don’t be late, Kara.”

* * *

_ Oh, let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone _

_ Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon _

_ Show me slowly what I only know the limits of _

_ Dance me to the end of love _


End file.
